Damage Control
by Crysania
Summary: The First Order has a new Supreme Leader. But is he unhinged or is there more to those strange conversations Hux keeps catching him having with no one? Hux POV, Reylo-centric


He's seen him talking to _someone_. Always at odd moments. Always when he thinks he's alone. The first time he catches him he hears just a few words… _why did you let me live_ …and backs out. He's heard stories of his talking to Vader's old mask. Burnt out husk of a thing. He can't even quite imagine how Ren had come across the relic.

But this is somehow different. And Hux wants to know _why_. There's a strange light in Ren's eyes when he catches him in those moments. Maybe it's just that his mask is off. Gone, even. He's heard the tale one too many times of the lift that was left half broken and in dire need of repair after yet another one of Ren's infamous outbursts. His mask was found in pieces and he can only imagine the _talking to_ Snoke must have given him after one failure too many.

And all down to the girl.

She was a scavenger. Nothing more. He's heard Ren muttering about her strength with the force but Hux can't quite imagine it. Doesn't _want_ to imagine it. If anyone should be strong with the Force it's _him_. But he's nothing. The Force flows around him, not through him. He can sometimes sense it. In the quiet moments of the night as he paces the bridge, when Ren comes too close. But it's not from a standpoint of control.

It's a standpoint of _being_ controlled. Choked, thrown about like someone's old rag doll. _Humiliated_.

Hux does not stand for humiliation.

He commands an army of thousands. They bend to his every will, doing his bidding in a moment's notice. Except when Ren is around. _Supreme Leader Kylo Ren._ He's little more than a petulant _child_ , standing up where their master, the true Supreme Leader should be standing.

There's still something _off_ about their Supreme Leader's death. _The girl_ , Ren has said. He doesn't elaborate on more than that, but Hux saw the destruction. A girl, a mere scavenger from a planet of so little consequence that the Starkiller could have blown it out of space and no one would even _care_ , somehow managed to take out their Supreme Leader, eight heavily armed guards, and Ren himself. No, there's something else there.

He takes to watching Ren whenever he gets the chance, walking past his quarters, attempting to see through the door when Ren opens it and strides out. "General Hux," Ren says one of the times he's been caught.

"S…Supreme Leader." He chokes on the words. It takes everything in him to manage to get those words out.

 _You should be Supreme Leader._

 _He should bow to you_.

"Has there been any word?" Ren's voice is calm, measured, but Hux watches him for a moment before he responds. There are still dark circles underneath Ren's eyes and his hand is still clenched into a fist.

"Word, sir?" He knows what he's looking for word of. It's the same thing he's _been_ looking for word of. _The girl. The damned girl_.

Ren raises one hand and Hux steps back. Not a day goes by lately it seems when Ren doesn't reach out and attempt to choke the life out of him. He's teetering on a knife-edge. He knows this. But it doesn't stop him. His mother would be…well, he refuses to think on her and damn that little bastard of a pilot for even bringing her back to the forefront of his mind.

He understands family problems. He and Ren could connect on that at least, though he thanks the Force that he's not the child of any Skywalkers or Solos. His life could certainly be worse.

"There has been no word," Hux finally says. They've scoured the galaxy for any sign of her. Well, that's what he's told Ren at least, the picture he tries to paint in his head just in case the other man tries to reach inside, pull the information out. He's seen to it personally that no one is really looking for _her_. They _are_ looking for the rebel scum that Ren, in his quest to see himself killed at the hands of his uncle, had allowed to escape.

To be completely honest, he'd been rooting for Skywalker.

Instead, Skywalker had been nothing more than a projection and he'd found Ren, sometime after they learned of the rebel's escaping on the Millenium Falcon, kneeling in the dirt like a commoner. There had been a suspicious track through the dirt on his face but he hadn't said anything about that, just glanced at it as the younger man rose and strode past him.

He was a temperamental little thing, all pale skin and black. Everything black. Black hair, black gloves, black outfit, and that cape that he insisted on wearing as if it would somehow lend him the gravitas of his dead grandfather.

How Kylo Ren was the grandson of Darth Vader was often beyond him. Throwing a boy who often seems little more than a testerone-laden teenager into a mask and all black does not a Vader make.

Ren's eyes narrow on him for a moment. And then it passes. "Carry on."

He's let off easily that time and he curses his cowardice. He should take the bastard out, kill him in his sleep if he has to. If Ren is confronted by Hux and several men, even the Force won't save him. _Nothing_ will.

It's something to think on at least, something to take to bed with him, fantasies that he can play over and over in his mind. Would Ren be surprised? Resigned? Angry? He almost hopes it's anger. That he'd lash out and Hux could take him out, inflict the killing blow. The boy is always going on about ending the Jedi. He barely remembers _he_ is one too. Oh, he might have abandoned the true Jedi ways. But it's still there, lurking beneath the surface. He is _still_ a Skywalker.

* * *

It's while Hux is building those plans that he stumbles on Ren talking to someone…again. _You refused me_ …

There's silence after that and Hux dares peak around the corner. Is he actually…

No, no he's not. There's no one there with him. He's in the hallway, facing away from Hux and there's no one there.

 _I offered you everything._

Silence.

 _I lay the galaxy at your feet_.

Ren makes a growling noise and takes a step or two forward. He's looking down. Like he's looking at _someone_ there, someone shorter than him. Someone much shorter. _Could it be?_

Hux hurries away, not sure he wants to see the rest of Ren's insanity laid quite so bare. It would be almost painful to watch if Hux actually cared about him. He doesn't, of course. He's something to get past, get over, push out of the way. Hux was once told that _he_ was destined to rule the galaxy after all.

And now he has to answer to _Supreme Leader Kylo Ren_ , a child who plays at being Darth Vader and roleplays in empty hallways with what he can only assume is _her_. The scavenger that Ren is so focused on. To the detriment of the First Order's plans, really. Already Ren has pulled away precious resources. He claims she is important to the Resistance, that capturing her would cause their downfall.

But there's still that light in his eyes as he speaks of capturing her and if Hux didn't know the bastard better, he would think it was _lust_. Or worse…love. He can well imagine him writing love poems to the girl. She's certainly…pretty. Or she would be, if Hux's proclivities didn't run in a different direction.

Still, even if _he_ would never want her, as if he would want some pathetic nothing from some pathetic nothing world. He would never want such a _nobody_. But he's _seen_ the way his new bloody _Supreme Leader_ watched her, hears the way he talks of her. Snoke saw it too. He knows because there had been talk of _weakness_ and _compassion_ and _not falling prey_ to base desires. Hux has never been sure what Snoke _was_ exactly but he was sure he wasn't human.

Even the First Order has their base desires.

And there's one thing Hux knows. Meeting those needs keeps his men…and women…happy. He's been all too happy to find whatever they needed. It's kept quiet, but Hux knows who goes and when and for how long.

Kylo Ren never goes.

And there are whispers about Ren's "relationship" with Snoke. And Hux wonders. Well, no. He _wondered_. Now he wonders about other things. And he worries. If Ren is not careful he'll take the whole First Order down with him while he spends his days mooning about in corridors carrying on conversations with no one.

* * *

"Captain Phasma," Hux says as he approaches the much taller woman. He's sometimes intimidated by her. Intimidated in a way that he isn't by Ren. She's tall, muscled, and there's such a fierceness in her eyes that sometimes he almost wishes he were attracted to _her_ because he can well imagine what being with someone with that kind of fierceness would be like. She's a warrior and he imagines that means in bed and out. If only…Well, it's no matter.

"General Hux," she says through the mask she wears out in the corridors.

"Might we have a word?"

She's silent for a moment and then the mask moves slightly. A nod. He precedes her into her quarters and is surprised to see her remove her mask. It's startling really. Bright blond hair cropped short, shrewd blue eyes. She's not _pretty_ like the scavenger girl is pretty, but she's glorious in her height and musculature and the way she stands taller than most of the Stormtroopers, meting out punishments the likes of which Hux most _certainly_ approves of. Some of them he even finds quite…well, no, he won't go there. Not when he's with Phasma. It can wait…

"Of course, General. What can I do for you?" Her voice sounds gentler without the mask, a slight lilt to the worlds. He knows her story, of course. Where she's from, what she's done. But the gentle voice seems so contrary to all he knows and has seen.

"It's about Ren…"

There's a small quirk to her lips. "Of course it is."

"Does he seem…unhinged…to you?" He chooses the words carefully. He always does.

"You mean more so than usual?" she shoots back and Hux finds himself breathing a slight sigh of relief.

"Yes," comes out before he can stop it. He glances off to the side.

"He's not here," Phasma points out.

"But…"

"Did you really think I didn't know about the security cameras?" The laugh she offers up is somehow bitter and amused at the same time. "I disabled them soon after I took over these quarters." The last is said with a nonchalant wave of her hand.

He makes a mental note to get them checked.

" _Don't_ think about re-enabling them."

Hux blinks once. Twice.

"Your face really is quite amazingly readable," she points out, almost conversationally. "Have you ever considered investing in a mask?"

Hux raises a lip in derision and Phasma laughs. She _laughs_. A _mask_. Hardly. He has no need to instill fear in his underlings by hiding behind such a thing, changing his voice. Ren does. Ren wants to look less the dashing young son of the infamous smuggler he tries to pretend isn't his father and more the grandfather he seems to revere. "I do think that's beneath me."

"Yes, well, it seems that _Ren_ has decided much the same."

"And…"

She looks like she's in deep though for a moment. "I don't know if it's the lack of a mask that makes him seem more unhinged or if he truly _is_ ," she finally says with a shrug.

"Phasma, darling, it's just _us_ ," he points out.

"I am aware of that…"

"You haven't seen anything…odd?" he hazards

"You mean Ren talking to himself? On occasion." Another shrug. "But who hasn't done such a thing?"

Hux stares at her and just barely manages to keep his mouth in place. "Yesterday he carried on an entire _conversation_."

"Both sides?"

"Well, no," he concedes. "But it was clear there was a response in his mind."

Phasma leans forward, just a tiny bit. It's obvious he's piqued her interest. "He does have that whole _force_ thing going on. Do you think…"

"Well, either that or he's completely insane." Hux ponders this for a moment. "I'm leaning toward insane."

He takes his leave of Phasma shortly thereafter. He has little to say but much more to ponder. _That force thing_ …how much of what Ren is doing is just in his head, the rantings of a fractured mind. He's heard Snoke rebuking him for his _compassion_ , for being split in two by his dark deeds. He says it's fractured his soul and Hux knows from the tone of Snoke's voice that he was turning on his apprentice. Hux would never have such a problem. Dark deeds come naturally. And the light? He'd choke it if he could, wrap his gloved hands around it and _squeeze_ until he had had wrung every last bit from it, left it dying and bleeding at his feet.

He's had dreams of ending Ren in much the same way. And his chance had almost come, as Ren lay unconscious amidst the destruction of Snoke's throne room. _The girl…_ he's always doubted the truth of Ren's assertion. _What happened?_ And Hux didn't imagine for one moment that he even _cared_ about the end of their Supreme Leader, the end of everything Hux knew and _cherished_. No, he wanted to know about the girl… _that girl_.

 _It's always about that girl_ …

* * *

Hux stalks him over the next few weeks but any bits of oddity are hidden behind the doors of his quarters. Ren rarely leaves them these days. When he does, it's only to stop up on the bridge briefly. Once he catches him standing at a window in an unused meeting room and hopes he'll see another one of Ren's strange conversations. But he sees nothing. Just his quiet, his focus, that ridiculous mop of unruly black hair that Hux is certain… _certain_ …he must dye to match the all black of his outfit. _He's just a childish brat, Armitage. You know this. Snoke knew this. Nothing has changed, despite his laying claim to a title he doesn't deserve_.

It's the middle of the night when he comes up with the idea of _cameras_. His conversation with Phasma has gone around and around in his head, working its way through brain cells and finally coalescing into a plan. He can trust it with no one and so it's some weeks later when he gets to act on it. Ren has left the _Finalizer_ on _some_ mission. He's not even sure what and to be honest, he doesn't care _what_ the infernal brat does when he's off the ship. He inquires anyway, because Hux is nothing if not desperate for information he can use against Ren. _You don't need to know everything, General_. Dismissive. Hux hates being dismissed.

 _I should have been Supreme Leader_.

He will be soon, if he has any say in it.

This is a job he trusts to no one. The more who know of it, the more chance there is of getting back to Ren and then he's a dead man. There is no loyalty in the First Order. They certainly all work together, but they'd betray him any chance they got, stripping him of his rank and perhaps even his life. And so he crawls into the shafts on his own, cam and wiring in hand. It's old tech he's working with, certainly, but it's simple, easy to install. It takes him mere moments to wire it into their system and set up the tracking on it.

It will record to his own datapad and nothing else.

He will catch him at something. He is sure of it.

And he does. Of course. At first it's nothing. More of Ren talking to himself. Sometimes sitting on his bed, which Hux notices with some irritation appears softer than his own. Sometimes he's standing and facing the camera and he can watch all the emotions flit across his maskless face. He may go maskless outside his quarters these days, mask crushed into oblivion, but he's a master of schooling his face to betray nothing. It's amazing how expressive his face is when he thinks he's not being observed. _No wonder he wore the mask for so long…_ The boy wears his heart on his sleeve and no more so than when he's having these odd conversations.

His eyes look almost damp as he speaks to the shadows around him. _Why didn't you…_

 _Yes I know._

 _I KNOW._ This word comes with his hand clenched into a fist.

 _But if they hadn't been…_

A smile ghosts across his face. Then a sigh. _I've made a complete hash of things, haven't I?_

He says nothing for a moment, just nods and then it seems like whomever is speaking somewhere inside his head must have said something a little harsh. His eyes flit to the side. _I'm sorry…_

And then nothing else. His shoulders drop and he curls onto his side and Hux realizes sometime later that he's watching the bastard _sleep_.

Worthless creature, really. He shuts off the datapad and decides that sleep might not be such a bad thing, now that he considers it.

* * *

It's nearly three weeks later when things get _interesting_. He's taken to watching Ren most nights. Sometimes he does little other than eat and head to bed. He turns away when he strips bare to step into the fresher and tries to ignore that little bit of jealousy. He's always considered Ren a weakling, some pathetic little boy who uses _magic_ to get his way, even if he's powerful with it. But it's obvious he spends time training with that light saber of his and he tries not to think of what the implications of _that_ are.

He has _plans_ after all.

Plans that involve a number of Stormtroopers and some way to block or permanently sever his connection to the Force. Hux is impatient though and with enough grunts he's sure they could overwhelm the bastard even with his abilities intact.

He tries to keep that little bit of niggling doubt from surfacing too much in his consciousness. Now that Snoke is gone… _dead, their Supreme Leader, their_ true _Supreme leader dead like so much refuse_ …there is no one on the ship who knows anything about the Force, save Ren himself. His Knights, such as they are, are scattered to the four winds doing _something_ which he's never thought to ask about. Only Ren can contact them and only Ren can call them back. That makes them less than useless to Hux's plans.

He'll just need more Stormtroopers to overpower him than he originally thought. He puts that in the back of his mind as he watches Ren that particular night.

He's curled on his side and he's murmuring something. At first, he thinks it's just his talking in his sleep. _Again_. And he nearly turns the datapad off. But then he sees him raise his arm and place it over… _nothing_. It's suspended in mid-air as if he has draped it over another body. And he makes a strange motion with his face, his nose pushing against…again, _nothing_. But he can't help but notice the way the flesh at the tip of his nose presses back, just slightly.

As if there's something _there_.

Something he is pressing his nose against, dare he say, _nuzzling_. Something he presses his lips to the top of before falling into what Hux can only describe as a contented sleep. He cannot help but feel utterly disgusted but he can't imagine that even Ren's delusions could manifest in something _real_.

Which means there's something there.

Something he talks to.

Something he _apologizes_ to.

Something he _cuddles with_.

He makes a strange noise in the back of his throat and turns off the datapad. There's much to think about. He's almost sure there is something more there than Ren just talking to himself. This one seemed to be… _real_ …almost.

* * *

The same thing occurs again. Not every night. But randomly over the next few weeks. He notices that it always seems to happen on days when Ren has had an especially trying day.

It happens more and more frequently as Hux attempts to undermine everything their _Supreme Leader_ does.

"The _girl_?" Ren snaps at him one day and there's a strange note of, _dare he say it_ , desperation there. His eyes are dark, almost black, as he rounds on him.

"Now, Ren, these things take time…" The words are cut off by the younger man's hand coming up toward him. He knows what's coming before Ren even has a chance to do it and so is not surprised at the feeling of his air being cut off.

What he _is_ surprised at is the strange look in his eyes and his ending the sensation almost before it begins.

 _That's interesting_ …

Ren stalks off then and Hux is left feeling strangely annoyed at the exchange. He was looking forward to a fight, taunting him over the girl. _Scavenger scum_. _Rebel scum._ He sneers at the other officers who are looking askance at him and strides off after Ren. It's easy to follow him after all, he realizes with a sigh. There are the occasional burn marks on the walls, the consoles, a few doors. Ren's temper has always been right below the surface and it's not the first time he's lashed out randomly at the corridors. And it won't be the last time Hux has to order the consoles repaired, the corridors refitted, once even an escape pod.

"Fix it," he snarls at the nearest Stormtroopers. They'll jump to do his bidding. They know it's easier that way.

* * *

That night Ren is in a _state_ and Hux is enjoying watching it. He's stripped to the waist and his hands, bare now, are clenched into fists as he pummels one of the consoles in his quarters.

He won't bother to get that one repaired unless Ren comes crawling to him about it. He does so love those little moments.

 _Now is not the best time_ , he hears him snap out and Hux starts to pay attention. He's never heard him _angry_ when she, and he assumes it is _she_ , is there with him.

There's a pause and he almost... _almost_ …feels like he can hear her next words.

 _Well this time I really mean it_. There's a bit of snark to the words but then Ren's shoulders drop and his head goes down and he seems to just weightlessly collapse.

 _I can't tell you…_

 _It's nothing…_

 _Hux…_ Here he pauses and shakes his head and Hux almost snarls as Ren cuts off whatever he was going to say. Even in his own quarters the _Supreme Leader_ dare not say anything against him. It makes him feel powerful.

So much so that he almost misses what happens next. If he had blinked, had looked away, had turned inward at all, he wouldn't have seen it. It happens that quickly.

For just one moment.

Just one, mind you.

 _She_ is there, her hand outstretched toward Ren, her eyes wide, small smile on her face as Ren reaches out toward her. Hux almost reaches out too before he realizes what he's doing. And then he smiles, feral, teeth bared. He has him. _He_ has _him._

He turns, slamming his hand into the comm line on the console nearest him. "Meet me at Ren's quarters. Bring a dozen troops." He's not fooling around. He knows that Phasma will hear the seriousness of his tone.

 _High treason_.

 _He_ has _him._

There's no getting away this time. Ren has just walked himself into his own trap and Hux feels almost light-headed, giddy with expectation.

* * *

It doesn't go down exactly as Hux had hoped it would. He hoped for a fight. He hoped to see that infamous Kylo Ren anger, the hate. He wanted to see him _fight back_ , give him a reason to cut him down where he stands. Captain Phasma, a dozen Stormtroopers, and Hux himself with a blaster trained on the man and he just gives them a _look_.

A sneer.

For just a moment.

His hand hesitates over his light saber.

And then his shoulders drop. He looks like a man defeated, as if he knew this was coming.

"I never thought you'd betray us," Hux sneers at him and Ren's eyes narrow slightly. "High treason, Ren. Just what _is_ wrong with you?"

"Treason, Hux?" Ren almost sounds amused. "That's a pathetic excuse for staging a coup against me. Even for you."

Hux smirks. He has the bastard now. _He doesn't know_. "Hardly," he responds with. "I've been watching you, you see Ren. Your behavior has been…startling to say the least."

He turns the datapad he's holding toward Ren and watches as the narrowed eyes widen slightly and his face goes even more pale. The scar across one side stands out in stark relief and his eyes seem darker than ever. "How…" The word is choked out of Ren and for one moment, just one moment, he fights back. Rage like a fiery inferno rises up in his former Supreme Leader and his hands fly out. The Stormtroopers release him as they fly back and away. But there are two more to take their place, a third with a Z6 baton striking out at Ren.

The younger man goes immobile, would have fallen to the ground had the two who were gripping him his arms let go. Hux steps forward, puts a hand under Ren's chin and forces him to look up at him. "I'm your Supreme Leader now." The words are said on a hiss, his lips pulled into a semblance of a smile. "Take him away." Hux releases the man's chin and Ren sags, head sinking down like a rag doll's.

The Stormtroopers start to drag him off. "Wait," Hux says before they get too far.

"Yes, Supreme Leader?" Oh, how he _does_ like the sound of that.

"Keep him drugged. Not enough to keep him under, but just enough to keep him subdued. We can't have him using the _Force_ to get himself out of here."

And then Ren is dragged off and the new Supreme Leader heads back toward the bridge. There's no more time to worry about Ren. Hux has people to command, armies to control.

* * *

Hux leaves Ren in his cell for a few days before he can't resist tuning back in. It's like some sort of serial holovid he can't quite get enough of. He's had reports about him, of course. They're entirely uninteresting. _I don't think we even need to keep him sedated Supreme Leader_ (and oh, that sounds so lovely). _He just lays there._

It seems that Ren has given up. He doesn't fight back. He doesn't pace the cage they put him in, doesn't rage, try to destroy things with his bare hands. It's almost… _disappointing_. He expected more, frankly, and hearing of Ren's air of complete defeat is, dare he say, _boring_.

So he watches.

And they're right. Ren is a pathetic creature. His hair hangs limp at the sides of his angular face, his eyes are dark, haunted. There are dark circles under his eyes. He's not sleeping. But he's not _doing_ anything either.

It takes him two days to realize Ren isn't eating. He takes sips of the water they send in, but the food remains untouched. And Hux will not stand for it. He wants him to suffer. He wants him to feel cut off, not a part of his own world anymore.

He stops by to stare at him one day.

"You're pathetic, Ren," he snarls at him from outside the cage.

Ren doesn't move, doesn't even seem to acknowledge his existence.

"I am your Supreme Leader…"

"You're nothing," Ren finally says and his eyes, when he finally meets Hux's, are flat. Black and flat and there's just nothing there. He's gone so far inward that there's simply nothing _there._ No emotions, dead. Snoke would have been so proud of him, now, as he nears the end of the pathetic thing he calls a life.

"We're going to find her," Hux continues, almost conversationally.

 _That_ gets a reaction. _Not so far gone then, are you?_ Ren stands and comes to the edge of his cage, hands pressed to the glass. He says nothing, but Hux can see the fire behind his eyes that he tries to hide.

"I know all about you, Ren. All about you and _her_. I've seen you talking to her, _cuddling_ with her." The words come out like that may be the absolute _worst_ thing a human being could do. "We will find her and we will bring her back here. And _you_ …" He pauses here, sneers. Ren's eyes meet his and he finds he can't look away for a moment. "You're going to live long enough to see what _exactly_ happens to her at our hands."

He turns on his heels then. What more is there to say? But he stops, sure that he's heard something. Shaking his head, he continues on. Surely it must be a figment of his mind.

 _We shall see_ …

And Hux will never be sure if the words he is sure he can't have heard were spoken in his voice…or _hers_.

* * *

It's been over a week since Ren's capture and they've stopped all sedation. The cage is nothing more than just a cage, nothing to dampen his connection to the Force needed. Ren does little more than lay on his bunk. He looks thin and bedraggled. Hux isn't even sure he sleeps. Every time he dares to peek in on the cameras, he's lying on his bunk, staring straight at the camera. It's almost unnerving. His eyes are already dead and Hux is sure he's simply waiting for the rest of his body to catch up.

He tries to stop watching Ren's decline. It's almost painful and he has better things to do.

Yet he returns.

Sometimes once a day. Sometimes several. And Ren is there, a statue, a dead man. His eyes are a little sunken, his pale skin looks paper thin.

"Does he ever move?" he asks the guards once.

"He drinks…on occasion. But otherwise…" The Stormtrooper gives a slight shrug of his armored shoulders and looks away.

"Force him to eat," Hux mutters.

"Sir?" The Stormtrooper is clearly confused. _He's here to die, isn't he?_ And he is, certainly.

"I need him alive…for now."

* * *

He continues to show up at his cell occasionally. They've been forcing a bit of food down his throat and it's almost horrifying to watch.

He continues to watch him on his datapad far more frequently than he shows up. There's been little out of him but then one day…

 _Just leave me…_

That pause. She's there and Hux can feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up just a little bit.

 _Let me die_ …

Nothing more after that and he goes to bed somewhat unsettled, wondering if he really should sedate him again. But there's a chance that she could give something away. A hint at their location, their plans, _anything_. The First Order has been scrambling since Snoke was killed. Weeks of chasing their own tails through space. The Resistance escaped, in no small part thanks to Ren's own idiosyncrasies.

Something has to give.

And if he can find it out through some weird magic connection Ren has to the scavenger girl before they kill him off, well, he'll take whatever he can get.

* * *

He gets nothing. Of course he doesn't. But he watches anyway. Ren talks to her more, though he's back to wondering if she's _there_ or if he's just talking to himself in some sort of self-induced delirium. No one has been to see him in a week. The Stormtroopers guarding him don't even bother anymore. He eats, small amounts but it's something. And they no longer have to force him.

So he's left alone.

 _He_ talks _to himself,_ they mutter to Hux whenever he asks.

It's the middle of the night when Hux hears something coming from his datapad. Ren is talking and normally he'd just roll his eyes and shut it down. But this night he finds himself watching.

Ren is laying on his side, face away from the camera, hand outstretched as if he's reaching toward... _something_.

 _No, I don't think it's…_

He pauses.

 _It wouldn't be wise. Why? You know why._

Another pause and Hux is almost sure he's hearing something in the silence.

 _It's trading one prison for another_. Ren's voice is bitter, defeated. It's a sound that's almost music to his ears. He's fallen so far. From the Supreme Leader's favorite pet to the caged animal who has given up on hoping for its freedom.

Nothing happens for a moment and Hux almost considers just going back to bed. But then he squints at the datapad.

There's a strange shimmer, as if the space in front of Ren warps just slightly.

And then…

 _Her_.

She's there, squatting down on the other side of the bed. He can only see her face and arms, the rest of her body disappearing into the void behind her. But she is there. Almost solid, one hand reaching out toward Ren.

"Come with me." The words are whispered, but they carry easily to the camera's microphone…and to Hux.

He's sitting up now and he's not sure he could take his eyes off the datapad if tried.

 _I can't…_

"I promise, Ben."

 _You can't make that promise_.

She pushes her hand further toward him. She's almost touching him, her fingers just a hair's breadth away from Ren's. "I'll protect you."

Hux wants to scoff. As if a scavenger from a nothing place like Jakku could offer any sort of protection for the former master of the Knights of Ren.

 _Rey…_ His voice breaks on the single syllable of her name and his hand moves, just a fraction, toward her.

"Yes, Ben, take my hand…" And _oh_ how the Supreme Leader would have hated her calling him Ben. _Ben Solo is dead._

 _I can't…_

"You can…"

She waits.

Ren does nothing for a moment, but Hux can see his jaw clenching and his body tensing. And then he reaches his hand out, thrusting it forward as if he will change his mind if he doesn't do it quickly. Rip the bacta patch off quickly.

Their hands touch.

Her hand winds around Ren's.

Ren's twitches and then surrounds her hand, engulfing her small hand in his much larger one.

And then she's pulling him forward, toward her. He's moves to his knees.

 _Rey_.

"Just let me…"

She pulls back, standing as she does. Ren follows and then…

"No." Hux feels the word ripped from him.

The tips of Ren's fingers start to fade out slightly and then his hand fades to the wrist. _No this cannot be_.

Rey disappears.

Ren's hand goes with her.

"No!" he shouts again. And then he's on his feet and out the door. "Stop them!" he's shouting at anyone who will listen as he careens down the hallway toward the cell they keep Ren in.

Why are the cells so far away from his quarters?

He shouts again, the words almost incoherent. He barely even notices that he's barefoot, barely notices the cold of the durasteel floor against his feet. A few sleepy Stormtroopers poke their heads out from the barracks and when they see the Supreme Leader tearing by give each other a look and follow. Weapons are at the ready, but there's no time for their armor. They're toy soldiers come to life, human, hair askew, rubbing sleep from their eyes and wondering what exactly is going on.

"Stop them!" he shouts again as he flies around the corner. Hux can hear the pad of many feet behind him. The cell is in front of him and the Stormtroopers who are supposed to be guarding it are just getting to their feet. Hux snarls at them, turning and grabbing a blaster from the nearest Stormtrooper. He doesn't even think as he points it at the two guards. They're dead before they can even speak a word.

He pushes past everyone to get to the cell, looks in. Ren has almost completely faded out and for a moment, just one, he pauses and looks back. Hux is sure he's going to say something and he waits for his damning words.

They never come. Ren simply offers one small quirk of his eyebrow and then he turns back toward where the girl disappeared. One final tug and he's gone too. Swallowed up by the force. The room shifts and then it's empty.

 _Empty_.

The scavenger is gone. Ren is gone with her. And Hux is left with _nothing_. "Noooo!" he screams into the void one more time as he sinks down in front of the now-empty cell, head against the glass. He doesn't even want to contemplate the damage control it will take to clean up this mess.


End file.
